Primary election in Congressional District 5

April 26, 2014

The incumbent, Kurt Schrader, a Democrat, is seeking reelection.  He has been in Congress since 2009 and has a career grade from 2009-2014 of D based on his votes on immigration issues as tabulated by NumbersUSA.
 
For the 2013-2014 period, his overall grade has slipped to D-, with several components at F-, including F- on reducing chain migration, F- on unnecessary worker visas, F- on reducing amnesty enticements, F- on reducing refugee and asylum fraud, F- on reducing illegal immigration rewards.  To view his record on NumbersUSA’s website, please visit http://www.numbersusa.com; click on Congress – Immigration Grade Cards.
 
Rep. Schrader has one opponent in the Primary, Anita Brown, but he is widely expected to be the Democratic Party’s nominee in the November General Election.
 
Two Republicans are competing in the primary to be their party’s nominee for U.S. Representative.  They are Ben Pollock and Tootie Smith.  
 
Ben Pollock spoke at the March meeting of OFIR and was enthusiastically received.  A 4th generation Oregonian, he holds a Bachelor’s degree from Trinity University, majoring in political science, and a Master’s degree in public policy from American University.  He has worked in small business management, also as a legislative director and  Congressional staffer.  Please visit his website at:   www.benforcongress.com,  He describes his background at:  http://www.benforcongress.com/about/
 
Here is the excellent Issue statement on immigration posted on his website:
Immigration
The immigration debate is often depicted as having only two options: amnesty for all of the 12 million people in the country illegally, or rounding up and deporting all of them. There are, however, many reasonable steps we can implement that enjoy widespread support.
 
We must first and foremost secure our borders and enforce the laws on the books. This is important in preventing not only illegal workers from coming to the U.S., but human traffickers and drug cartels as well. Any plan that addresses the status of those already in the country illegally cannot take place until this happens. The government also cannot deport the over 12 million people in this country illegally in any sort of timely or economical manner; it just is not possible. Therefore, we ought to enact proven verification programs, such as the free E-Verify system, that will make it far more difficult to employ those in the country illegally.
 
To address future legal immigration, we should implement a modernized work visa system that matches the number of visas awarded in any given year to our nation’s actual labor needs. Finally, it is important to ensure that those in the country illegally do not have access to the generous entitlement programs afforded to the American taxpayers.
 
You can contact Ben Pollock by email at: info@benforcongress.com, or use the webform for email at: http://www.benforcongress.com/contact/.
 
Mr. Pollock replied to the Oregon Abigail Adams Voter Education Project, and gave these answers to the 4 questions on immigration:
19.       Do you support requiring all employers to verify employee eligibility to work in the United States?         Yes.
20.      Do you support securing the borders before any form of amnesty is legalized?            Yes
21.      Do you support spending public funds to benefit illegal immigrants?         No
22.      Do you support automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. when both parents are not legal residents?       No.
See the Abigail Adams questionnaire at: http://oregonabigailadams.wordpress.com/
 
The other Republican candidate seeking nomination is Tootie Smith, who served a term as State Representative, 2003-2004, and in 2012 was elected to the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners.  Her website is at:  http://tootiesmithoregon.com/home.html.  It contains a section in Issues but does not mention immigration.  She did reply to the questionnaire of the Oregon Abigail Adams Voter Education Project and here are her answers to the 4 questions on immigration:
 
19.   Do you support requiring all employers to verify employee eligibility to work in the United States?     Yes 
20.   Do you support securing the borders before any form of amnesty is legalized?    Yes 
21.   Do you support spending public funds to benefit illegal immigrants?    No 
22.   Do you support automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. when both parents are not legal residents?     Yes
 
On the question of birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens, Ms. Smith indicates support for that policy, and Mr. Pollock does not support the policy.  OFIR’s position is that granting automatic birthright citizenship is not in the best interests of this country.  To learn more about the subject, please visit:  http://www.fairus.org/issue/birthright-citizenship
 
You can contact Ms. Smith by email at: tootie@tootiesmith.com or use the webform for email on her website at: http://tootiesmithoregon.com/contact-us.html.  Her campaign telephone number is:  (971) 777-3273